Quality of life in patients with psychotic disorders: impact of symptoms, personality, and attachment

The aims of this study were to assess the relative contribution of symptoms and specific psychosocial factors to different domains of quality of life (QoL) in patients with psychotic disorders. Positive, negative, and depressive symptoms; Five-Factor Model personality traits; and attachment dimensions were assessed in 110 patients with nonaffective psychotic disorders. Hierarchical and stepwise regression analyses were conducted. Psychosocial factors were able to predict all domains of QoL, when symptom severity was controlled for. Furthermore, the physical QoL domain was best predicted by attachment, personality, and sex (R = 43.1%); the psychological QoL domain, by personality and depressive symptoms (R = 60.5%); the social domain, by personality and positive symptoms (R = 30.3%); and the environmental domain, by personality and negative symptoms (R = 27.9%). Our findings highlight the role that specific individual characteristics play in different aspects of QoL in patients with psychotic disorders.